Amish Friendship Bread recipe is perfect to share with friends. Now you can make your own with this Friendship bread starter recipe & free printable!

The other day I was looking through my past emails when I came across an email I had sent my stepmother with an Amish Friendship Bread recipe as well as a Friendship Bread starter recipe. I realized I hadn’t made any in years and years! If you aren’t familiar, Amish Friendship Bread is a sweet bread that you make off a sourdough starter. The starter is “fed” and kept for ten days, then divided into four portions, three of which you can gift to friends and one you use to bake the most heavenly cinnamon sugared bread! Then your friends can pass along the Amish Friendship Bread recipe to their friends and so on and so on indefinitely.

When I was newly married I would receive a starter a couple of times a year from friends and neighbors and always enjoyed it. Sometimes, though, you want to make this delicious bread and you need to create your own starter if no one you know has some on hand. This was the position I was in just before Thanksgiving and since I was whipping it up I decided to share the starter recipe with you all along with printable instructions and the Amish Friendship Bread recipe sheet you can use to gift it to friends and family. It’s perfect for the upcoming holidays as well!

Amish Friendship Bread Starter Recipe

Amish Friendship Bread is the perfect recipe to share with friends. Now you can make your own with this starter recipe along with a free printable for gifting starter to others!

Author:Melissa

Ingredients

1 packet active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

Instructions

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water and allow to sit ten minutes (mixture will turn frothy.)

In another nonmetal bowl combine flour and sugar and mix well. Slowly stir in milk, then yeast mixture. Allow to sit until bubbly then add to a gallon plastic bag and follow the instructions on the printable.

Amish Friendship Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup starter

1/2 cup sugar + 1.5teaspoons ground cinnamon for dusting the pan

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 large box instant vanilla pudding

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Grease two large bread pans. Mix 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 1 /2 teaspoons cinnamon and dust greased pans with mixture. Tap out extra sugar mixture into a bowl and set aside.

Mix remaining ingredients in large bowl until smooth. Pour evenly in the two pans and top with remaining cinnamon sugar mixture.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool ten minutes before removing from pan.

When I gifted this set of starter I rolled the plastic bags and put them in standard sized mason jars (with these cute red tops!) It’s important your starter doesn’t touch metal because of the chemical reaction it will cause so don’t gift in the jar without using the plastic bag!

My recipe allowed you to sub vanilla pudding with lemon pudding and lemon extract, chocolate pudding and chocolate extract, etc.. to make a flavor other than cinnamon spice. My friends and family, especially Dad, loved them as they were baked in small individual little loaves. Glad to find your starter recipe to start again.